…I thought it was

Supposed to be
Left to right!?!?
 The Concept Of…
Concepts Of Print
• The basics
– Concepts of Print are our understanding of the way in
which print (written language) works
– How books are read, how reading relates to writing
and how reading relates to spoken language

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
 Concepts of Print Cont’d
• The various concepts learned by children are:
– We read print from left to right
– Illustrations go along with and often expand upon the
text
– Printed text represents spoken language
– Print can be used for many different purposes (tell a
story, keep a list, inform, etc.)
– For any given book, the words remain the same, in the
same order

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
 Concepts of Print Cont’d
• The various concepts cont’d
– Words are read from top to bottom
– We use a “return sweep” (we return to the start of the text
on the left at each line)
– Spaces separate words
– Sentences have a beginning and end, marked by a capital
letter for the first letter of the first word and some sort of
punctuation after the last.
– Words have a first letter, middle letters and an end letter

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
 Concepts of Print Cont’d
• The various concepts cont’d
– We hold books “right side up” and open them at the beginning
(for most books)
– We turn the pages of books from left to right (if read from
the beginning forward)
– The orientation of letters matters (a “p” could be a “d” and a
“m” could be a “w” depending on how the letter is viewed)
– Books always have a front/back and an author
– Books sometimes have: an illustrator, index, table of contents
and glossary

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
 Concepts of Print Cont’d
• The various concepts cont’d
– Where previous concepts are usually taught very early on
in school, the concept of punctuation (including
upper/lower case letters, commas, period, question mark,
etc.) is typically learned in later grades.
• Reading and Writing
– Reading and writing go hand in hand
• Reading gives children good examples of how to write
• Writing helps them practice various concepts of print
(punctuation and grammar in particular)

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
Concepts Of Print Cont’d
• Reading and Spoken language
– When children read, they will learn that written
English may be much different from the way they
speak
• This can make learning the concepts of print quite
difficult
• Children must learn to convey meaning through their
words and words alone

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
Concepts Of Print Cont’d
• The Alphabetic Principle
– Another important aspect of concepts of print is the
alphabetic principle. This principle is the idea that
words are made of letters and that letters represent
the sounds of spoken language. The sounds that
different letters make are also known as phonemes,
which is discussed in another PowerPoint. Included in
this principle is the idea that putting letters together in
different ways creates different words.

The above information is from Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts

of print and genre knowledge. Presentation for TE 301, East
Lansing, Michigan.
 When And How They
Develop
• Early encounters
– Before children even reach school they are
exposed to print through television, magazines,
cereal boxes, etc.
– If children are read to at an early age (even
infancy), they can learn things like; how to hold
a book, where to begin reading a story and in
which direction to read

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,&

Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers:
Opportunities for better reading instruction. Chapter 1.
Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
 When And How They
Develop Cont’d
• Early School
– When children enter school, they are
taught more specific things like letters
and punctuation
– Children also learn the conventions of
different genres (“Once upon a time” in
fairy tales for example)

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,&

Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers:
Opportunities for better reading instruction. Chapter
1. Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
 When And How They
Develop Cont’d
• Later Grades
– Once the mechanics of reading and writing are
learned, reading and writing for
comprehension/meaning can begin
– Textbooks are used more and more the older
children get
• With textbooks comes the learning of glossaries, indexes
the table of contents (these concepts should be
introduced in earlier grades if possible)

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,&

Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers:
Opportunities for better reading instruction.
Chapter 1. Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
So, What’s The Big Deal?
• Well…It’s important!
– Reading and writing is a part of our everyday
life
– Learning these concepts opens the door to the
world
• If they learn to read and write it will help them
succeed in all areas of life
• Perfecting grammar, being able to clearly convey
their thoughts and other advanced techniques of
writing will prepare them for higher learning

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,&

Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers:
Opportunities for better reading instruction. Chapter
1. Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
The Big Deal Cont’d
• An early start
– Exposing your children
to literature early is a
great way to prepare
them to learn these
concepts
– If children know the
basic concepts coming
in (how to hold a book,
which way to read, etc.)
than they will be able
to learn how to read
much quicker

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/773903/2/istockphoto_773903_addorable_
 The Big Deal Cont’d
– Reading to your child as often as possible
gives them good examples of how printed
language works and how it should be read
– Once children start to learn the various
concepts, practice at home is essential.
• There is only so much time in a school day

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,&

Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers:
Opportunities for better reading instruction. Chapter
1. Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
 Second Language
Learners
• Learning concepts of print is hard enough, but when English is
a child’s second language, this difficulty can increase
exponentially
• There are many variations in the way that different
languages are written that could lead to major problems for
SLL’s
– The English language is read left to write where the Arabic
language is written right to left
– The English language has 26 letters (symbols) that are combined
to form meaning where Chinese uses a logographic system with
one written symbol for each unit of meaning
– Countries like Norway do not even have conventionalized spelling,
it is up to the writer to decide how to spell each word

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,&

Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers:
Opportunities for better reading instruction.
Chapter 1. Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
 Second Language
Learners Cont’d
• Home life
– Another problem that can affect SLL’s is when
their parents don’t speak English
• When the child’s parents don’t speak English, the
child often misses out on a lot of practice at home
• It is also problematic when the parent does not want
the child to speak English in the house
• Again, this lack of practice greatly affects the
child’s learning

The above information is from Strickland, Dorothy,& Snow,

Catherine (2002). Preparing Our Teachers: Opportunities
for better reading instruction. Chapter 1. Washington D.C.,
Joseph Henry Press
 Concepts of Print
Assessments
• The checklist shown
on the right is a good
example of a formal
assessment, typically
used in earlier grades
to check a students
understanding of the
various components of
concepts of print.
– Use the hyperlink below
for a larger view

http://www.mlpp-msl.net/assessments/conceptsofPrint/Concepts-of-Print-A
 Concepts of Print
Assessments Cont’d
• Other assessments/activities that can be done in-
class and at home
– While reading to children, model the one-to-one
correspondence between what you are saying and the
printed word (helps relate spoken to written language)
– Have children clap every time there is a word spoken
(helps develop children’s concept of a word)
– Cut out letters of the alphabet (both lower and upper-
case) for children to manipulate
• Can ask individual children to make the letters into
different words or even sentences, depending on the
level of development.

The above information is from

http://www.mlpp-msl.net/assessments/conceptsofPrint/Concepts
 References
• Duke, N.K. (2007). Concepts of print and genre knowledge.
Presentation for TE 301, East Lansing, Michigan.
• http://www.mlpp-msl.net/assessments/conceptsofPrint/Concepts-of-Print-A.pd
• Strickland, Dorothy,& Snow, Catherine (2002). Preparing Our
Teachers: Opportunities for better reading instruction. Chapter 1.
Washington D.C., Joseph Henry Press
• http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/773903/2/istockphoto_